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Sabbath Devotional :: Helping Hands
How do you frame your covenants? I can appreciate people finding meaning through the lens of dwelling in the house of the Lord, holding to the iron rod and following the covenant path, shepherding lost souls, or fighting the good fight. As I have aged, I have found little so meaningful as understanding my covenants though the symbol of the Body of Christ. Some years ago, my mind was awakened as I sat through the administration of the sacrament. I realized that my covenant to remember the body of the Son, was not only a promise to remember a weeping god, burdened with the weight of the human yoke and…
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Are You Aware? Taking Our Temperature
This is part I in our “Concerning Climate” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. The night of Tuesday, November 8, 2016, I couldn’t sleep. I tried distracting myself to calm my nerves but to no avail. The few moments I did sleep were fitful and short lived. Anxiety for the future had replaced disbelief and was my companion all night. My number one concern was climate change, and I knew the president-elect didn’t share my concerns and, in fact, held policy positions in opposition to my concerns. You may not have experienced this same apprehension or felt it to the same extent. If that’s the case,…
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Are You Aware? Founding Faith
This is part I in our “Freedom of Religion” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. It is a common misconception that the United States was founded as a “Christian nation” and that the founders intended it as such. It is true that the American colonies were largely established by Christians and that Christianity had a profound effect on the architects of the nation. But history does not support the claim that our government ever was, or was intended to be, Christian by those who conceived of and orchestrated its emergence. It was, in part, the oppression felt from both the British monarchy, with their supposed “divine…
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Are You Aware? A Pandemic in the Country
This is part I in our “Rural America” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. When my family goes on road trips, we often measure our progress relative to population centers — sometimes pulling off the highway, briefly, to stop at a convenience store or a fast food joint along the way. Yet, sometimes, I find myself thinking about what life is like in the space between. My mother was born and raised in the mountains on the border of Washington and Idaho. We laugh at stories of her and her three sisters waking each other to venture out to the outhouse in the middle of the night,…
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MWEG Member Op-Ed :: ‘When It Comes to Wearing a Mask, Just Do It’
“Let’s talk about our social contracts. There are laws and policies that dictate what we have to wear. Most states, and many cities, including Provo, have decency laws that require adults to wear a certain amount of clothing. Why? Because it protects me when I wear them, and it protects you and makes you feel more comfortable. Many businesses have policies that state, “No shoes, no shirt, no service.” Why? Because it protects the business against liability from injury or discomfort of their customers and employees. There are also many people who adhere to certain dress codes because of religious instruction. Are you one of them?” Click here for the…
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Are You Aware? We Are All Enlisted
This is part I in our “battlefronts” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. I have been thinking about the words “We are all enlisted till the conflict is o’er.” As a pacifist, I am generally not a big fan of battle-themed songs, despite their stirring and jaunty tunes. But this one feels particularly relevant to the lives we are leading today, and as I have thought about the message, I can appreciate the value of metaphors that allow us to identify and “fight” the battles in our lives. If you are like me, you have been worried about a lot of people, and situations beyond our…
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Awareness Wednesday :: Xenophobia, Part II — Symptom of a Virus
The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names. — Chinese Proverb In the closing months of 2019, a novel coronavirus jumped from animals to humans and began spinning a web of infection, starting with the people of China and spreading with staggering speed worldwide. The virus, and its potentially deadly symptoms, are not the only thing being disseminated on a global scale. Xenophobia, particularly toward those of Asian descent, has seen a dramatic rise in the ensuing months, both here in the United States and around the world. A young woman from Brooklyn reported that while visiting Washington D.C., a man started making faces at her on the metro. She…
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Awareness Wednesday :: It’s Black History Month
Many of the lies they told still follow us and continue to shape the lives and deaths of black people in America. I am a white woman. It is Black History Month. It is time to get uncomfortable. It is time to listen.
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Awareness Wednesday :: Homelessness — Are We Not All Beggars?
When I was in high school, I went on a group date to the symphony in Salt Lake City. Along our route to Abravanel Hall, we walked by a couple with a dog. They were sitting on the sidewalk and appeared to be under the influence of some substance. As we passed by, they asked us if we had any money so they could feed their dog. After we had moved a little further along the sidewalk I laughed and said, “Yeah right! I’m sure they want money for the dog.” I am grateful that that evening I had friends who gently chastised me. They hadn’t given the couple any…
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Are You Aware? LGBTQ+ Education Introduction
This is part I in our LGBTQ+ Education Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. My husband and my oldest son have brown eyes, I have gray eyes, and my younger son has grayish-green and gold hazel eyes — I don’t have any other way to describe them. My husband has dark brown (almost black), salt-and-pepper hair. My hair is naturally brown, though I choose to highlight it to cover some of the gray that started showing up when I was 16 years old. My youngest has red hair, and I don’t even know what color to call my oldest son’s hair. Sometimes I say red or…
